Citywide Missional Order?
Recently, in a November 07 meeting, the language of a Covenant Community or an Order has come up in describing the collection of folks that are orbiting around us in the U40 group. In the (ever-?) ongoing discovery of who we are and what God might be calling us to here in San Diego, it was noticed that:
- we are a collection of people who are longing to be with others on the missional journey.
- we have a vision/burden to see San Diego and to some degree Tijuana transformed with the gospel of the Kingdom.
- we are centered-set around Jesus and his Kingdom agenda.
I didn’t really have a good mental map of what a missional Kingdom movement would look like. But last November, after Chris Brewster and Jason Evans began using the language of being like an “order,” the conversation just took off. I left the meeting with a couple of very clear thoughts. First, this was clearly something that just about everyone in the room felt some resonance with. Second, I knew nothing about orders. I still don’t.
But the more think and read about it, I’m intrigued. I like the idea of gathering missional leaders that have a burden for the whole city to choose to covenant together. While not leaving their primary faith communities, there would be a deliberate second order choice to join with others to be the city church. It would value the unique callings that individual brings to the community/order such as church planting, marketplace ministry, arts/media, or educators, etc. At the same time, we covenant to learn from each other who are gifted and called to be involved in justice and sustainability issues, racial reconciliation and homelessness issues (to name only a few.)
So, as these ideas have been bouncing around in the back of my head, I ran across a blog by Len Hjalmarson entitled, “Missional Order - Two Lenses.” If I understand correctly, there is a group of folks associated with Allelon that are talking about forming a missional order of sorts. Len’s post seems to be after a series of meetings at “Seabeck.”
The posts were meaningful to me because I’ve been asking the same questions as these folks:
- What are the common practices that the community would gather around?
- How would a missional order relate with local churches?
- Can you just start an order? Do you need a license from somewhere?
How would something like this work when those of us thinking about this in the U40 crowd have only read about things like this? Len then quoted a passage from Missional Church that I had just been spending much time in. Chapter Seven, written by Alan Roxburgh, details a structure for missional leadership. I spent a good deal of time here because I thought I’d make a presentation for the Feb 08 U40 meeting. We didn’t get to it, but I highlighted the same passage as Len.
In commenting on the role of missional leadership:
“…The leaders’ primary skills are directed toward intentionally forming such orders within the community.
This can only happen as leaders themselves participate in such orders. Leaders must exert the greatest attnetion and energy at this point for anumber of reasons. First, it is the covenant community that witnesses to the gospel as an alternative logic and narrative within the social context, including in particular the larger unbounded congregation. Second, this area is precisely where leaders have been given almost no preparation; there are few models from which they can learn. The leaders themselves must therefore become a novitiate, embark on a missional apprenticeship, in order to give the kind of direction needed by the emerging missional community. This is a demanding task that cannot be given a secondary role in the church.” (Emphasis mine) (Missional Church, 211)
I’ve no idea where the conversation will go… stay tuned.
Here is something I wrote but did not publish.. it tells the story of Seabeck in October.
Andy Raine of the Northumbria Community writes,
“Rule then is a means whereby, under God, we take responsibility for the pattern of our spiritual lives. It is a ‘measure’ rather than a ‘law’. The word ‘rule’ has bad connotations for many, implying restrictions, limitations and legalistic attitudes. But a Rule is essentially about freedom. It helps us to stay centred, bringing perspective and clarity to the way of life to which God has called us. The word derives from the Latin ‘regula’ which means “rhythm.†A Rule is .. a means to an end – and the end is that we might seek God with authenticity and live more effectively for Him.
“Being bound to a Rule of life could be very restricting, but it is a voluntary and purposeful restriction. It excludes other possibilities in order to be focused on what is chosen. There are new and demanding priorities, but there is also much joy.”
In the beauty of an October fall, a group of men and women gathered from around the world to talk about a way forward for missional leaders in a fragmented and fragmenting world. In a world of deep complexity, facing problems for which there are no clear answers, with maps which are outdated and no longer reflect the territory on which we travel, we gathered to tell stories, reflect, and dream together about an old way toward a new future. Essentially, we sought together for an anchor that would allow us to journey together toward God’s kingdom.
The metaphors of signpost, anchor, and map are not chosen lightly. We are a people on pilgrimage. This was an underlying theme that did not need to be articulated, but one in which we lived as we entered into rhythms that for many of us are both old and new.
Every morning we spent time together praying the Office, echoing prayers that both root us in tradition and invite us forward. Every morning we reflected together on the words of Luke 10 - dwelling into a missional call that is as old as the Gospel. We sought to come together in a way that would honor our diversity as well as call us to a new unity.
We were Anglicans and Lutherans, high church and low church, evangelical and charismatic, Baptist and Mennonite. Yet our stories and our common vision brought us together in vulnerable and hopeful dialog. It was fitting that we met at Seabeck, Washington, on the rainy and green coast not far from Tacoma. It was on another wet and green land far away in time and space that others responded to God in a similar way, seeking the path of faithfulness on the margins of a lost and fragmented world.
The reason for our gathering was the birth of a missional order. An order is a covenanted structure that is centered around a rule, or a way of life. A rule defines a set of practices that grow out of shared purpose and shared understanding. An example of a rule is found on the Northumbria website and runs like this:
A similar rule may eventually be born from the Seabeck gathering. The heart of the intention is sustainability in service for the missio Dei. We believe God sends us out together for His redemptive purposes. We desire to partner with one another and with Him as we go, much in the manner of Luke 10.
A common reason for the failure of Christian leaders, and for the lack of depth in our communities, is that they are not deeply formed in the way of Christ. A rule is a tool to assist in that formation process, and it expresses recognition that we need the encouragement and support of others as we make this journey.
Secondly, when we fail to be intentional in this formative journey we are instead formed by the dominant culture. We need to acknowledge that culture is a cultivating force. How will we resist the formative influence of secular western culture apart from alternative practices of formation? Simone Weil wrote that, “culture forms attention.†Culture is a cultivating force. We need our attention fixed on Christ and His kingdom if we are to sustain the journey, and if we are to respond to the creative wind of the Spirit as he reinvigorates missional imagination. We need disciplines of attention more than ever as we become a marginalized group in a pluralistic culture.
We live in a time of exile, as strangers in a strange land. The greatest risk is accommodation, but there are other dangers. If our communities cease to exist as alternative communities, we lose our ability to witness to the transforming power of the Gospel. Ultimately it is our communal witness that grounds the authentic message of the Gospel in postmodern culture, where truth as proposition is increasingly devalued in favor of lived or incarnate truth.
May the Lord empower us to live faithfully in this generation.